Friday, August 31, 2007

Balls of Fury

I knew when I went to see this movie that there would not be one Oscar-worthy performance. It was going to be a silly movie. In many ways it was but I nevertheless had a good time. Christopher Walken was his usual "Christopher Walken" character. Of course the fact that he was called Mr. Feng in the movie made it all that enjoyable for me. Maggie Q got to show off both her beauty and great martial arts techniques. But I think it's time to cast her in some other role.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

FM OT

One of the best things about being an hourly employee as opposed to salaried is that OT and extra shifts are paid at time and a half or more. I also get stat days and if I happen to work on that stat day, time and a half again! Well, last week I worked an extra day and this morning I worked an extra hour. I can't wait to see my paycheque next week because it's going to be a nice one (just like the last one). That's good because I'm about to go to the dentist for some crowns and my extra pay will at least cover some of the costs.

Can't wait to see Balls of Fury either today or tomorrow.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Mr. Bean's Holiday

I've been a fan of Rowan Atkinson's comedy for a long time. I must have seen every episode of his TV show 100 times by now. But this movie was somewhat of a disappointment. Rowan Atkinson is a genius when it comes to short skits. His style does not work for a feature length movie. He had one good scene in this movie when he was busking on the streets of Paris. Other than that there was nothing special about the movie.

Ahhhh

My long work week ended with a nice relaxing midshift. Although I'm someone who prefers to be active at work instead of having nothing to do, it was good to have a stressless day on Saturday. The floor ran smoothly and there were no significant problems or concerns.

Now I have one precious day to relax before restarting the cycle again (yup, split days off this week). I can't wait to see Mr. Bean's Holiday.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

AM/PM

And so I managed it, working at 11:15pm-7:15am and then coming back for a 3:15pm-11:15pm shift. It actually went along wonderfully. I usually wake up at around 2pm anyways after a graveyard shift. And the midshift was easy as I remembered it. When the floor is running smoothly there really isn't a lot to do other than cover sick calls and prepare for the next day, which I did. For once we have a full complement of staff (assuming no sick calls) so hopefully we'll make some money.

Friday, August 24, 2007

OT

Today is Day 5 of my 6-day work week. We are so short that when one of the managers called in sick a couple of days ago, they called me in but unfortunately couldn't cover one of the days that I would need off. I'm not even complaining, as 6 days as a floor manager means a nice paycheque with the OT. Even though I'd gotten off work about 7 hours ago, and I'm going BACK to work about an hour from now (yup, 8 hours between shifts), I'm cool with it. I haven't seen the midshift staff in ages. It's also a bit less stressful on midshifts.

My work week has been challenging to say the least. During the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) we are always short. We only had 6 dealers coming into work at 6am, and at 5:30am there were 8 tables open. As it were, I had to keep two dealers for OT in the morning (yuk), but that's part of the game.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Mixed Up

While I'm comfortable running the floor on graveyard shifts, I haven't been able to get comfortable with my new sleep cycle. When I was on days, I would stay up until about 9 or 10pm and then sleep until 6 in the morning. It's different on graveyards. I go home and it's about 7:45 in the morning. If I sleep, I end up waking at around 1 in the afternoon on five hours of sleep. I can't seem to get myself to sleep during the day, so instead I end up taking four or five short naps (as opposed to one long sleep). It'll take getting used to.

La Dee Dah

It was an interesting week at work to say the least. It's been a nightly challenge trying to run the floor smoothly considering we are so short staffed. Normally I wouldn't even have to think about giving staff OT but that isn't the case anymore. Sometimes it's just unavoidable. Nevertheless I've tried to keep the OT to a minimum. Last night was fairly busy. Even at 6am when the the new staff comes in, most of the 8 tables open were full.

Meanwhile I get to relax for two days, as a kink in my schedule resulted in two days off Thursday and Friday followed by one night of work and then two days off on Sunday and Monday. And then my schedule gets weird.... but that's another story.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Superbad

I went to this movie expecting another "toilet humor" movie with no substance, but I sure was pleasantly surprised. Seth Rogen is turning out to be a gifted writer. While there was a LOT of toilet humor and sick jokes, the movie actually had a decent plot. I could identify with one of the characters (I won't say which one). And of course everybody is talking if the "pie" scene in American Pie and the "hair gel" scene in There's Something About Mary now have another member in the sick joke club. The answer is YES (no I'm not giving it away). I must see this movie again.

Rush Hour 3

And here we have another entry in 2007's "Part 3" sequel collection. I went in expecting the same tired old jokes, but the movie was actually quite funny and refreshing (if not predictable). Jackie Chan still needs to learn to speak English but Chris Tucker stole the show this time around. He was hilarious. The scene at the Kung Fu studio was a nice take on the "Who's on First" routine.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

How Much?

I read in the newspaper today about a local coffee shop that was serving a new kind of coffee so I had to check it out. I bought a cup for both my friend Albert (the coffee connoisseur) and myself and it came out to.... $30. Yup. I had to see what a $15 cup of coffee tastes like. I must admit it was OK but you have got to be kidding me. I could have how many Tim Horton's coffees for $15? Anyways, here is the link below if you're really interested.

$15 for Coffee?

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Groundhog Day

No, this isn't a review of the movie, which incidentally was a pretty good effort for Bill Murray. But so often I feel my life is mirrored in this movie. While I am happy where I am at the Casino on Broadway, it just seems that every day is the same for me. Wake up, run some errands (maybe), go to work, go to sleep then repeat. I need to do something more productive during my off time, otherwise I'm going to go crazy from boredom. That being said, I do enjoy all this quiet time to myself. But it's pretty darn impossible to find someone to spend the rest of my life with if I'm stuck at home playing online Scrabble.

Friday, August 10, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum

It was probably a bad idea to see this third installment of the Bourne series without having read any of the books or seen any of the previous movies. As a result, the movie seemed like a predictable thriller. I didn't think there was anything special, just the usual special effects.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Back on Graveyards

Well after a short time "relaxing" on day shifts, I was transferred back to graveyard shifts. It had been a long time and it took a while to get everything going. And it was noticeably busy even for a Saturday night so there was some OT incurred. It will take some time to get that rhythm back again, and also to get used to being up at night. I'd been used to going to bed at 9pm.